I hate companies like Matrox - prime example of egregious arbitrary price inflation, "because it's industrial/professional". All that eventually gets passed down to us. Considering they don't actually make the chip and probably hardly do anything with the drivers, what are they supposed to do to support their customers? All they can really do is promise replacement parts, but guess what: you could buy the cheapest A380 you can find for less than half the price of Matrox's A310, and it will probably last a lifetime.

For a while, they continued to produce 2D chips which were quite good for displaying lots of pixels on lots of monitors, even if they had no advanced 3D rendering abilities. But this is just lame, they are no different than GUNNIR, just stamping their name on an Intel design. Who is dumb enough to pay upwards of $500 on this low-end cr4p ?

'nuff said

"But it is targeted at digital signage and businesses are craving more displays with more media playing targeted at customers." Yeah, Matrox, but money doesn't grow on trees.

It comes with specialized software that solves a certain problem, only people with said "problem" know if its worth 500$ or not. This wont run games, its "low end" designation means very little if it does what it supposed to do flawlessly. Half of your car isnt designed by the people who put a sticker on it. Its all shared across the industry. This isnt far from that.

PPC:

It comes with specialized software that solves a certain problem

Bulls***.

Here's my PC about 5 years ago doing work with 4 independent displays on a basic nVidia consumer graphics card, with just Windows 10 and nothing else. We had this ability to display high resolution on multiple monitors years ago, matrox is bringing absolutely nothing new. Wait, 4 is not even the limit, at some point AMD cards had the ability to drive 6 (SIX!) monitors. These cards are simply massively overpriced and Matrox is scamming gullible customers. Getting an Arc chip from any of the card makers will result in exactly the same abilities !

LOL if you that's expensive. You should see what people, companies pay for door hardware in commercial doors I work. $500 aint for for most companies to buy stuff like this. Will it sell alot, doubt it, but there still is a market for this $500 gpu. Our owner company threw out 35 RTX 2060 OEMS from their office PCs they bought as it was cheaper for them to buy them with the 2060s during 2020. Ever rig had i7 8700 with 32GB DDR4 2666 for just using as office pc with dual or triple monitors.

PPC:

It comes with specialized software that solves a certain problem, only people with said "problem" know if its worth 500$ or not. This wont run games, its "low end" designation means very little if it does what it supposed to do flawlessly. Half of your car isnt designed by the people who put a sticker on it. Its all shared across the industry. This isnt far from that.

Do you even know what this "problem" is? Perhaps what you said was true back when Matrox made their own GPUs (so, I think back when ATI was their own thing?), but that hasn't been the case in a long while. It is very unlikely they'll have made a multi-GPU configuration better than Intel using their own GPU. Unless they are developing their own in-house drivers, I just don't see what they could do better. Besides, multi-monitor stuff is mostly handled by the OS these days. Really the only ting the GPU drivers do (from what I can tell anyway) is display identification, particularly waking from sleep.

I certainly have no idea what the "problem" that Matrox solves is but since they are in business i guess its a real one and people that have said problem like their solution. Maybe they provide a fanless multi monitor that can be used in industrial applications (i honestly have no idea) or something like that. Theres a company that sells legacy systems for more than top of the line current systems, how so you ask? Well, some industrial sistems just dont work well in emulation and springing 3k $ for a mediocre 1995. computer in 2023. certainly doesnt matter to a factory if it does the job of actuating their multi milion production line. They wont care if it "cant run Crysis". Theres a Compaq laptop from early 90s thats used to service a McLaren F1 (original), doesnt work with emiulation, that laptop you can sell for upwards of 5k today. No one but McLaren F1 owners understands that "problem", doesnt mean its not real or not worth 5k. The car originally costed 1 million, now it sells for 20. Why arent you pitchforking ALL mobile phone manufacturers who use android/snapdragon? Why is every high end phone using a Sony camera?! SCAM!

PPC:

... large quantity of unrelated bla bla bla ...

This isn't some legacy unreplaceable specialized product servicing a very expensive platform, it's a brand spanking new common Intel chip that was just released last year. Which Matrox is selling for 3 times what Intel is asking for it. I'm done here. https://media.tenor.com/FHsZQYMzMtUAAAAC/exit-stage-left-snagglepuss.gif

For a specialized use with a software addon, is that addon worth it? Certainly not to me but as the market has declared, it does to some, apparently enough to keep Matrox afloat. Theres a very good anecdote concerning this. My country has a huge diaspora, they all have relatives back home who are old and not technical. This is happening some 10 yrs ago, Skype exists, free voice/video calls over the internet are possible for a long while but this one guy takes some VoIP phones that are like normal landlines, sets it up for both parties (mainly in Germany and here) so when grandma dials 1 she gets her family abroad. Grandma cant use Skype on a laptop, she can use this. He made a fortune.

PPC:

I certainly have no idea what the "problem" that Matrox solves is but since they are in business i guess its a real one and people that have said problem like their solution. Maybe they provide a fanless multi monitor that can be used in industrial applications (i honestly have no idea) or something like that. Theres a company that sells legacy systems for more than top of the line current systems, how so you ask? Well, some industrial sistems just dont work well in emulation and springing 3k $ for a mediocre 1995. computer in 2023. certainly doesnt matter to a factory if it does the job of actuating their multi milion production line. They wont care if it "cant run Crysis".

Matrox has been around for a long while. Back when they made their own hardware were actually competitive, particularly in 2D acceleration. That was until the mid 90s, when the competition was handily outpacing them. At that point, they started to focus on things like industrial, medical, or government markets, since they don't need a lot of performance, they just need good uptime. Matrox's products were so old and refined that they could actually promise reliability. So yeah, of course it was never about gaming, at least not for the latter half of their existence. The thing is: they're not making their own chips anymore and I highly doubt they're making their own drivers, especially back when they used Nvidia's chips. They can't promise anything. So, what do they have to offer with their giant price tag?

Theres a Compaq laptop from early 90s thats used to service a McLaren F1 (original), doesnt work with emiulation, that laptop you can sell for upwards of 5k today. No one but McLaren F1 owners understands that "problem", doesnt mean its not real or not worth 5k. The car originally costed 1 million, now it sells for 20.

That's different: we're talking about a product that likely has a very specific configuration and firmware and is trapped in time as a result. There are countless of other similar examples, like how the US military still uses floppy disks to operate some of their nuclear weapons, or stores with networked cash registers made 30 years ago. I've been in a mainframe for a large insurance company that uses virtual tape drives, because the underlying software is so old that it doesn't know how to read hard drives. Matrox's Luna series isn't targeting such markets. For legacy systems that have a "problem", what is Luna supposed to do to fix that?

Why arent you pitchforking ALL mobile phone manufacturers who use android/snapdragon? Why is every high end phone using a Sony camera?! SCAM!

First of all, that's not even true - there's quite a lot of competition in the phone market. But even if that were true, the answer is simple: because they're not price gouging for no apparent reason. Matrox is basically charging 4x the price simply because of their name, a guarantee they probably can't deliver on, and perhaps an unusual (but not hard to replicate) display connector configuration.

Those were all examples of specialized problems with a hefty price tag that dont make sense to anyone else but the person/company having them. Since there are companies providing such services, solving those problems, it seems theres a market for it. None of them are direct comparison to Matrox but a comparison in principle. Same with Matrox, i bet none of us here hasnt touched a Matrox board for 20+ yrs but they are in the market, they have clients, they operate. There is no better proof than that, that they provide a useful service to someone. Your post is full of "probably cant deliver" not even knowing what they deliver, that doesnt seem a bit odd to you? Maybe, just maybe, they do deliver being in business over 30 years. Maybe they just produce really reliable boards that you can count on, maybe their RMA is minimal. When a business has HW failure its a whole another thing than your home comp not booting up, i can see them charging 500$ for a multi monitor card solely on that aspect, for example.

PPC:

Those were all examples of specialized problems with a hefty price tag that dont make sense to anyone else but the person/company having them. Since there are companies providing such services, solving those problems, it seems theres a market for it. None of them are direct comparison to Matrox but a comparison in principle.

Back when Matrox made their own hardware and drivers, it did actually make sense to buy them. Maybe not for everyone, but there was a good reason for it. But, to spend 3x the amount on a GPU that there is actually a direct comparison to, is objectively financially stupid. You're just paying for the name and ideally good RMA, but for the price, you could just simply buy two or even three copies of the same off-the-shelf Arc GPU and swap it out in less time (and therefore increase your total uptime) while spending less money. The thing is, the probability of such a competing GPU ever failing is virtually 0%, assuming it isn't DOA and not in an extreme environment (in which case, you need a passively cooled GPU, which it appears Matrox does not provide for all models).

Same with Matrox, i bet none of us here hasnt touched a Matrox board for 20+ yrs but they are in the market, they have clients, they operate. There is no better proof than that, that they provide a useful service to someone. Your post is full of "probably cant deliver" not even knowing what they deliver, that doesnt seem a bit odd to you? Maybe, just maybe, they do deliver being in business over 30 years.

It's no different than buying a Creative sound card - they're a slowly rotting company that is only kept alive by people who remember them from 30 years ago. The reason I say Matrox probably can't deliver is because they didn't hardly do anything in-house, yet you're paying for support as if there is something they can take action on. They just made a PCB with a bunch of video connectors on it. What is Matrox supposed to do in the likely event that Intel's immature drivers have an issue? Best-case scenario, they can do some basic troubleshooting, have a direct contact with Intel (which is only going to further delay support, as opposed to the customer directly contacting Intel), or maybe create an application profile. As stated before, hardware reliability is not a selling point for Matrox. Anyway, Matrox does appear to make other products that are actually interesting and perhaps of their own in-house design. I assume these are what really keeps them in business, not these awfully-priced GPUs.

wavetrex:

Bulls***.

Here's my PC about 5 years ago doing work with 4 independent displays on a basic nVidia consumer graphics card, with just Windows 10 and nothing else. We had this ability to display high resolution on multiple monitors years ago, matrox is bringing absolutely nothing new. Wait, 4 is not even the limit, at some point AMD cards had the ability to drive 6 (SIX!) monitors. These cards are simply massively overpriced and Matrox is scamming gullible customers. Getting an Arc chip from any of the card makers will result in exactly the same abilities !

Those were Radeon HD 5000 series cards, they could run 6 monitors. They were introduced in 2009, yes 14 years ago. Today we have processor iGP cores that can do much more than that at low price. Matrox is one of those companies that only lives off its legacy, nothing new. We are going to see more of this stuff because Intel plans to make chips for other companies and license their x86 and GPU designs to third parties in order to stay competitive against ARM and RISC-V.

wavetrex:

Here's my PC about 5 years ago doing work with 4 independent displays on a basic nVidia consumer graphics card, matrox is bringing absolutely nothing new. Wait, 4 is not even the limit, at some point AMD cards had the ability to drive 6 (SIX!) monitors.

Agree that most low cost GPU can handle 4 display or more... Asus and NVidia itself have even tried to make specialised display card with those GPU... Both fail. When you need multiple fluent display at one point you need Matrox hardware (internal as this board or external as some multiple 8K walldisplay need) What Matrox bring with their hardware and it's software solution, is making all the display fluent when they all moving at the same time, and do so with small GPU for the task done. It is for that you can found Matrox board with NVidia and now Intel. So yes, there is nothing new, it is the original biz of Matrox before to do chip, and they are alone on that market (but they also do some video hardware).

Agonist:

LOL if you that's expensive. You should see what people, companies pay for door hardware in commercial doors I work. $500 aint for for most companies to buy stuff like this. Will it sell alot, doubt it, but there still is a market for this $500 gpu. Our owner company threw out 35 RTX 2060 OEMS from their office PCs they bought as it was cheaper for them to buy them with the 2060s during 2020. Ever rig had i7 8700 with 32GB DDR4 2666 for just using as office pc with dual or triple monitors.

Or when i was full time working, the computer i had in the office that cost more than, the Jaguar i was driving, due to Quadro/Tesla config... 500$ is peanuts when you go pro. and don't forget that you have the support and service included in the price.

You people are beyond delusion. Matrox has pivoted like 20 years ago but its living off "legacy". Its consumer GPU legacy is long dead, no one is buying these graphics out of sentimentality for Matrox brand. I would feel comfortable betting that maybe 3% of current Matrox clients has any idea what they did 30 years ago. Hell, Matrox is longer a specialized multi monitor gpu company than anything else at this point... legacy, rofl. Also, i am sorry, what is the point you lot are trying to make? That it can be done differently and cheaper? Basically anything can. That its overpriced? There is no such a thing as an objective price in capitalism. Anything else? Where were you when Apple sold rebranded Intel/Ati machines for 20 years?

PPC:

You people are beyond delusion. Matrox has pivoted like 20 years ago but its living off "legacy". Its consumer GPU legacy is long dead, no one is buying these graphics out of sentimentality for Matrox brand. I would feel comfortable betting that maybe 3% of current Matrox clients has any idea what they did 30 years ago. Hell, Matrox is longer a specialized multi monitor gpu company than anything else at this point... legacy, rofl. Also, i am sorry, what is the point you lot are trying to make? That it can be done differently and cheaper? Basically anything can. That its overpriced? There is no such a thing as an objective price in capitalism. Anything else? Where were you when Apple sold rebranded Intel/Ati machines for 20 years?

Price matters A LOT, that's why apple is having only like 7% of PC market and 18% of smartphone market, so literally only minority of users are using apple hardware. In fact its usage has decreased since they introduced their M1 and M2 computers despite them being really good, why? No possibility to run windows. Despite apple being a good hardware overall, the huge price premium hardly justifies it, no matter how much money you have. Cost of upgraded specs on their machines is just ridiculous no matter how you try to look at it. So yes, capitalism does not have objective pricing but it does have market, you can decide what price you put on your product but market decides if your product is worth the price you are asking.

PPC:

You people are beyond delusion. Matrox has pivoted like 20 years ago but its living off "legacy". Its consumer GPU legacy is long dead, no one is buying these graphics out of sentimentality for Matrox brand. I would feel comfortable betting that maybe 3% of current Matrox clients has any idea what they did 30 years ago. Hell, Matrox is longer a specialized multi monitor gpu company than anything else at this point... legacy, rofl.

It's not about sentiment, it's about using past experiences and being mislead into thinking they're going to offer what they could 20-30 years ago when: A. They have no control over the product anymore, so what support are you paying for? B. These chips are practically indestructible anyway, hence "might as well buy the competitor at a lower price". It's really not a hard concept to grasp. I get it - there must be something else appealing. You are so certain Matrox has some sort of market appeal for the price, so go ahead and find it. I went to their actual website and they mentioned nothing that stood out. Perhaps (and I didn't check) they're the only company as of today that makes a 4-port single-slot low-profile A310 GPU, but it's an immature GPU meant for environments that demand reliability all while Matrox has no method to help with failures. It simply cannot be worth their asking price.

Also, i am sorry, what is the point you lot are trying to make? That it can be done differently and cheaper? Basically anything can. That its overpriced? There is no such a thing as an objective price in capitalism. Anything else? Where were you when Apple sold rebranded Intel/Ati machines for 20 years?

There's being expensive and then there's 3x higher than direct competitors. Their service is virtually meaningless. If you don't see the problem here, nothing will convince you. I actually think the Apple rebrand is a perfect example against your argument. Despite that rebrand, people years later kept saying "Apple is better for graphic design!" even though they lost that advantage. But regardless of all that, Apple actually had something to offer when they swapped to Intel. You weren't getting some overpriced machine that ran Windows. What does Matrox offer that their competitors don't? Perhaps an additional display connector for the low price of $200?